Korgscrew
Group: Super Admins
Posts: 3511
Joined: Dec. 1999 |
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Posted: Jan. 28 2001, 20:11 |
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You might find bits of info dotted about in various places, mostly in interviews and things.
Some pointers though:
On most of his recent work, Mike's guitars have mostly (if not completely) been recorded by going direct into the mixing desk, via an effects unit. He uses mostly a Roland GP-8 (and GP-100) for this, although he's also ben using the VG-8 virtual guitar unit more recently (that of course effectively synthesises the sound, although because of the way it does it, the machine doesn't get defined as a synthesiser...).
The secret to getting that sound is, of course, to have a lot of very expensive equipment  .
Some things to try, though:
Unless your soundcard, multitracker, mixer, etc, has a special guitar input, plug the guitar into a DI (direct inject) box or an effects unit with a line out - this is important as you'll lose the treble end of the guitar signal if you plug straight in to a line/mic input (unless you have an active guitar).
Experiment with pickup selections - a lot of Mike's recent work uses his strat's 'in between' positions for the clean sounds.
Record the guitar 'dry' and add the effects later - it'll give you more flexibility. Then, try different types of effect on it. There isn't usually a huge amount of effects on Mike guitar - just reverb and a compressor (unless it's distorted of course). The more adjustable parameters on the reverb unit (or plug in) the better. Mike would probably use a fairly long decay time, maybe even up to 4 seconds or so. A fairly bright reverb sound would be more in keeping with his style. You could also try light amounts of chorus.
Experiment a lot with compressors...for a really processed sound, try high ratios. Play around with the attack and release times as well...just play with everything really Eventually you'll hit on something interesting (I did this with an acoustic guitar recording and hit on that distinctive 'Tubular Bells' sound).
Personally, I usually prefer recording guitars via an amp - it seems to give the guitar a bit more life. Direct recording is worth experimenting with though - it can give some interesting results.
I hope this helps in some way...
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